Having been shown this Zurbaran picture some time ago, in a slide set by one of our former Vicars, you will probably not be surprised it ‘stayed with me’. The picture is entitled ‘Lamb of God’ and eventually gave rise to this poem.
Paschale.
Whoever heard of a sacrificial
lamb fighting back?
Normally they just bled and died.
But this one, this Paschal Lamb
transformed the Temple's butchery
block
into a field of glorious
conquest,
conquering the sin, the hate,
and the devilification
that had been laid upon him.
For, on a cheerless Sabbath
night,
flayed, pierced, pinioned;
unquestionably dead
from a shameful spit hanging,
laid upon a slab of stone:
he triumphantly, gloriously
broke free of every natural
constraint,
whilst earth trembled with awe
as it was touched by heaven.
Death and sin, he demonstrated
to a sick and troubled world
could not hold him.
Death and sin he demonstrated
to a sick and troubled world
could not hold us!
From his eternal throne,
‘Arise, my friends’, he cries, ‘Arise!’
‘You who have been faithful,
like the women who watched,
waited and discovered my empty
tomb, arise’
‘I have fought death, I have
fought sin
I have conquered.’
‘And my beloved flock, the
triumph is for you.
Arise!’
You will find other Lent, Holy Week and Easter poems, songs and meditations HERE
